Feds: Mt. Pleasant man tried to strangle two women

BAY CITY – A grand jury in U.S. District Court here has charged an Isabella County man with attempting to strangle two of his female dating partners about two months apart on the Isabella Reservation of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.

Rodney K. House has been charged with two counts of assault of an intimate or dating partner by strangulation or attempted strangulation, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in federal court.

The grand jury alleges House tried to strangle a female who was “his intimate and dating partner” on or about Jan. 29 to Feb. 1 on the reservation in Isabella County. The grand jury also alleges House committed the same crime against a different woman on or about Nov. 29, 2013, on the reservation.

House also faces one count of domestic assault by a habitual offender. The grand jury alleges that crime occurred on or about Jan. 29 to Feb. 1 against the same woman House is accused on trying to strangle during that time period. The indictment claims the woman was “someone whom House resided with as a person similarly situated to a spouse,” and alleges House committed the crime “after having been convicted of family violence in the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Court” in 2000 and in January of 2013.

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The convictions on the family-violence charges involved a victim who was a spouse or intimate partner, according to the indictment.

No trial date has been set on the trio of felony charges, which will by heard by federal District Judge Thomas L. Ludington.